


Looking At You

by jyongdae



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: First Impressions, Fluff, M/M, Synesthesia, noct is awkward prom is awkward gladio's having a GREAT time, not an accurate representation of synesthesia in the slightest just a heads up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-11
Updated: 2017-09-11
Packaged: 2018-12-26 13:49:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12060267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jyongdae/pseuds/jyongdae
Summary: Purple slides over his skin like satin in a breeze and he can taste the sunshine, like skittles or starbursts. Noctis thought that he had seen (and felt) it all. He'd never felt a boy like Prompto before.quick synesthesia promptis





	Looking At You

**Author's Note:**

> To re-iterate, not an accurate representation of synesthesia, just fleshing out a stray 1am thought.  
> Just a short thing.

He's with the guys when it happens.

They're on a side of town he doesn't usually visit, dragged out to help Ignis carry his grocery shopping, appeased only with the promise that they can go wherever he wants after. Truthfully, he knows they're just trying to get him out of the apartment, it's not like Gladio isn't gonna be able to handle a shopping bag filled with herbs. But he lets them.

When he spies a game store on the other side of the street, he's quick to tug on Gladio's sleeve before ducking inside. He hears Gladio call Ignis, who was further ahead, but he pays them no mind, already in the cool shade of the store's air-con. He adjusts the brown paper bag against his hip as he rifles through the games.

He feels Gladio's large presence behind him more than he sees him before he's clapping a hand down on his shoulder as he sidles by in the small aisle. Ignis says something as he follows him but Noctis doesn't much hear, too busy reading the bio on a first-person shooter.

He doesn't know how long he spends flicking through titles before Gladio's voice cuts through the typical rock music playing overhead. He perks his head up and looks over the stands until he finds Gladio at the register desk, waving him over. Ignis is somewhere to the side of him, laden with vegetables, quietly spying the games to the side of the main desk, looking decidedly bored. When Noctis raises his eyebrows in Gladio's direction he just waves again, pointing to his grocery bag at Noctis' hip. He sighs and puts down the game he was holding, managing to balance another three in the hand wrapped around his bag, as he snakes around the other shoppers on his way to the cash desk.

He's just within speaking distance, mouth opening to ask Gladio what he wants, when it happens.

He sees a shock of yellow from behind the register and almost thinks to brace himself. The colour yellow, in all it's shades, had always felt ... unpleasant to Noctis. Like dry straw, or the scratch of woollen jumpers against sensitive skin. Instinctively his fingers tighten around the plastic in his hand, but - the itchy feeling never comes. He expects it, like a rash on the thin skin of his forearms, or the sensation that ripples over the soles of his feet after walking in the rain. Instead, after just a fleeting glance, he's met with something else. Smooth and light, like sunshine on bare skin. He almost chokes.

His mouth is already open, but nothing comes out and the three of them looked at him expectantly. Gladio and Ignis and the boy behind the counter.

"Um, what? What did you want?" he manages, trying to focus on Gladio's rugged features and not the blond, blond hair of the store clerk. So it was him. He sees yellow and can taste pancakes, all syrup and warmth.

"I think I left my wallet in your grocery bag," Gladio says easily, leaning over to dig through it. All red fruits and cartons because the green of the raw vegetables in Ignis' bag feel like thistle stems, sticking to the pads of his fingertips.

As he digs through the bag, Noctis can't help how his eyes land on the boy again. He looks self-conscious as he straightens up the few games Gladio had settled on, fixing them neatly so that the edges of the cases all lined up, perfectly stacked atop one another. It made Noctis feel just as self-aware so he tries to hide himself behind his bangs, pretend he's looking through his bag also, but if Ignis' snort is anything to go by, he isn't selling it.

"Ah, here we go," Gladio says as he finally pulls back, wallet in hand. The boy turns to him, smiling gently. His eyes flicked briefly to Noctis, for only a moment. Noctis can feel the flush rising on the back of his neck and it tasted like the beetroot juice that Ignis had insisted he try one time.

"That's $40.97 altogether," he says with a broader smile and Noctis feels like he's looking directly into the sun.

He can't keep from studying the tousled locks falling about the boy's face, the varying shades of gold and platinum and how none of them feel like anything he has ever encountered before. They're soft and round and he can feel his fingertips heating up just looking at him.

The sudden weight of the games that Gladio has just dumped into his bag pull him out of his staring and he realises with a start that he has, in fact, been staring. A lot. Enough so that the boy's cheeks have flushed the most astounding shade of pink, strawberries and cream, and something in Noctis' chest tightens as he notices flecks of golden across his skin. Freckles, like pinpricks of summer, heat and fireflies, caught in jars and painted onto him in tiny brush strokes.

Lightheaded and distracted, Noctis manages to tear his eyes away, remember where he is, what he's doing, and, somewhat awkwardly, slides his own games onto the desk.

Seemingly grateful for something to with his hands the boy reaches for them with a smile and starts ringing them up. As he does it Noctis looks away, only to catch Gladio smirking down at him, so he bodily turns in the other direction and finds Ignis looking at a copy of Cooking Mama. That's weird enough to clear Noctis' head of the sunshine boy for a moment.

It happens sometimes. Every now and then he will encounter a new feeling, a new colour association that will throw him for a loop as he tries to process exactly what shade or hue it was that stirred up such a feeling, figure out why his brain has decided to connect these dots in this particular way. One rare new feeling at a time is manageable. It's been a long time since he's been so overwhelmed with new colours, new textures, new tastes. And this one stranger is wearing all of them.

"Um, that's $46.98," the boy says shyly as he slides Noctis' stack of games back across the counter. His voice is light, and lilting, and Noctis briefly wonders how it would feel against his skin if he had developed that particular brand of synesthesia. As he pulls his wallet out of his jeans he tries to think about Ignis' hair instead, of bird feathers he found at the beach once, or Gladio's tattoo, thunderstorms in July.

As he pops his card into the machine Gladio just blurts it all out.

"He has synesthesia, you know."

"Huh?" The boy looks up from where he had been intensely focusing on the card reader. He had mostly returned back to his normal, un-flustered complexion, but the tips of his ears were still red. "Sorry?"

Ignis stifled a cough behind his hand and Noctis knows it's not a real one. He turns on Gladio.

"Hey, that's my busine-"

"Yeah, like, colors set him off in a weird way. Like he won't touch green stuff because they taste like beetles or somethi-"

"That's not true!" Noctis yanks his card out of the reader too soon and it beeps angry at him. Gladio continues,

"So that's probably why he's being weird, he's not normally like this."

"I- uh-"

"Noctis, if you would put your card back into the machine."

"Yeah, I know Ignis-"

"Like maybe its your face? It's not a bad face but I don't know, maybe you're triggering something inside him-"

"Gladio can you please stop-"

"Maybe it looks like it would taste good?-"

"I'm trying to buy video games-"

"Or maybe he just wants to bone down. Ya know?"

Noctis stamps his foot on the floor in petulant disbelief that Gladio could out him like this in front of this video game clerk and he can feel his own cheeks reddening like wildfire. He can hardly bring himself to look at the clerk but glances at the reader to make sure that he can remove his card. He can and he does, hastily shoving it and his wallet into his pocket, glaring something fierce at Gladio's smirking face. He reaches for the games but the clerk has pulled them back towards him over the desk ever so slightly. His hand is still holding onto them.

"Um-" the clerk mumbles, apparently steeling himself. The blush is back.

He looks at Noctis over the counter and Noctis notices the blue blue blue of his eyes. He tries to divert his attention to something else before he falls into this boy's neverending sensory traps but he can't seem to. He manages to kick his foot into his opposing ankle though, enough pressure to keep himself present in the moment.

"Synesthesia, huh?" Gladio claps Noctis on the back again, and Noctis knows that Ignis is following him back out of the store. Leaving him alone. He almost cries out for them to stay. "That's pretty interesting."

Noctis tries to subtly ease the clamp closing around his throat.

"Sometimes," he offers.

"Does it always get you into trouble?" the boy asks, shyly. His eyelashes are so long.

"This is a first. In a lot of ways." He mumbles the last part to himself but the clerk still manages to hear him. He cocks his head to the side.

"What do you mean?"

Noctis doesn't open his mouth. The boy lessens his grip on his games.

"Noctis, was it? I'm Prompto." He pauses. "You don't really want to eat my face right?"

Noctis snorts. Strawberries and cream.

"No, I don't want to-" He sighs. "Listen, none of that stuff he said, it wasn't-"

"You mean about you wanting to 'bone down'?" the clerk, Prompto, says, laughing with an eyebrow raised. Noctis can see that he's biting the inside of the cheek but also that the hand he's reaching for the receipt with is shaking slightly. He's shy. And he's really trying. Noctis lets out a breath of air.

"Yeah, that." He tries to look apologetic, but Prompto is busy, writing something on the top of the receipt.

"That's cool," he says when he looks up. He glances around and Noctis wonders if he's looking for his manager. "You know you've got pretty good taste in games. If you ever wanna play some-" and he slides Noctis' purchases over to him, the receipt on top. He sees his name and a long number scrawled out. "Or you know, whatever-"

He doesn't say the rest but Noctis gets it. He bites his own lip down as he takes the receipt and pockets it, tipping the rest into his bag. Prompto's face is more strawberries than cream at this point and Noctis swears he can taste it, bursts of colour over his tongue.

"... I-I wouldn't mind," Prompto says eventually.

Noctis knows that Gladio and Ignis are waiting for him outside. He adjusts the weight at his hip, nods in Prompto's direction.

"Yeah, that'd be- yeah. So I'll eat you later? SEE YOU LATER-"

**Author's Note:**

> author's note noctis was buying viva piñata


End file.
